Avoid Interstate? Yes Please.

After eating nothing all day and walking over 20 miles, I was famished, and the selection of canned and dried food I have in my car was not looking very appitizing, so I decided to spend some of the little money I had and go get some real meat from the dining room at the Skyland lodge. I got there and sat at the bar, and the first menu I looked at was very expensive, with entrees starting at $15. The bartender could tell I was having trouble deciding so he brought me the bar menu, which contained more reasonably priced things such as burgers and fries. I ordered a half pound bacon cheeseburger with carmelized onions, and a Prohibition Punch, which is a drink made with moonshine and orange and some other liquors. While I ate the burger I chatted with the bartender and found out that there would be live music later in the night, so I decided to stay for that, and while I was waiting I chatted with people at the bar, including a softwear engineer named Patrick who works for Microsoft, and he ended up buying me a drink since I had spent all the money I brought in. The singer came onstage around 9, and his name was Mark "T". He played lots of Lyle Lovett and Jethro Tull, and a good mix of other songs. He did a great rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" in the style of the late Hawaiian singer Iz, and he also covered the Beatle's "Here Comes the Sun". After the show I stopped and talked to him for a minute and got one of his business cards. I then went to my car and drove it across Skyline Drive to a parking lot without any lighting and went quickly to sleep.
The next morning I woke up fairly early and drove back south towards Big Meadows where the celebration of the park's 75th anniversary was beginning. While on the way I saw several deer, a few turkey, and at one point I to stopped at an overlook and a coyote came walking down the road right past my car. He stopped for a second in the middle of the road and saw a deer up the hill and went chasing after it. I got to Big Meadows and parked, and the volunteer who directed me where to park commented on my Grateful Dead sticker, and we began chatting, and I found out that his last show was at Watkins Glen in 1973 with The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, and The Band. This just so happens to be the last festival ever played at Watkins Glen....Until Phish's SuperBall IX this weekend!!! He said that The Dead wasn't even the highlight of the festival, he said that The Band stole the show that weekend. I then headed down the hill towards the festivities, and I got there just a few minutes before the re-dedication ceremony began. The U.S. Marine band opened the ceremony, and a local Eagle Scout led the pledge of alligence. There were then a few speeches by park officials, and after that a Franklin D. Roosevelt impersonator, who was dropped off in an antique car, came on and read some excerpts of the speech from the dedication ceromony in '36. After that was the re-dedication speech given by the park's director, and the color gaurd retired the colors for the end of the ceremony. After that I looked around at the different tents they had set up and walked back to my car. I drove to the parking lot to reach Hawksbill summit, the highest point in the park. I got there and started up the trail, and saw more wildlife along the way. I reached the top where there are spectactular 360 degree views of the park and surrounding lands. There were also some nice boulders and cliffs to climb, and I spent a few hours climbing the rocks there before heading back down to my car. I then drove north until I found a good overlook where I could watch the sun set. There was a guy there with a huge HAM radio setup complete with motor driven antenna attached to his car. I listened to his conversations for a little bit and then crossed the road to climb on some rocks on the other side while I waited the few hours it would take for the sun to set. The sunset was amazing, the sky went from a light blue to a bright yellow deepening into a vibrant orange that darkened to a color that I can only describe as rorange and then turing into a deep deep pink as the sun set over some distant clouds into tomorrow. Everything then had a purplish tinge to it before it got completely dark. I then drove farther north to find an overlook on the other side of the mountain so I could wake up and see the sun rise. I parked and got in the passengers seat to go to sleep, and not long after I had fallen asleep a ranger knocked on my door telling me that I couldn't sleep there, so I drove north til I was almost out of the park and I found a picnic area to park and sleep in.
I woke up the next morning and hiked up to a place called Snead's Barn where there was an old barn still standing from before the land became part of the national park. There were also some old ruins of what looked to be a farmhouse. While looking around I noticed a few small cannabis plants growing on the ground in one spot. I figure someone accidently dropped some seeds. The trail continued on and came to a point where it overlooked the valley and city below. A park ranger had told me that hang gliders use this as a point to launch off of. There were two local girls there I talked with for a while, and since this was their first time in the park, I recommended a few places they should check out. While up there I noticed more hemp growing. I walked back to my car and drove out of the park and into the town on the north end of the park, Front Royal. I stopped there to work on my blog and get some food. I went to Burger King instead of McDonalds because there were no open plugs at McDonalds. After I went back to my car at McDonalds, I realized I had forgotten to get directions, so I went in to look them up. After I had the map pulled up I asked what street we were on, and didn't get an answer from the staff, but an older gentleman came up and asked me where I was going and gave me very detailed directions on where to go. He sat down and we ended up talking for almost an hour about all kinds of things before we both had to leave. I drove north into PA and took back roads through the beautiful backcountry. I like taking backroads over interstate any day, there is so much more to see!! I stopped in a Best Buy parking lot to sleep around ten.